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London no longer to be the third most popular tourist destination

Published on : Wednesday, November 8, 2017

A new research has shown that London might soon lose its third place in terms of international arrivals and slip down to the sixth position.

The UK capital is expected to welcome 19.8 million international visitors in 2017, placing it behind Hong Kong (25.7 million) and Bangkok (23.3 million). But Euromonitor International, a global market intelligence publisher, has analysed travel trends to predict that London will slip to sixth place.

The firm predicts that international travellers to both Hong Kong and Bangkok will rise by 71 per cent, to 44 million and 40 million respectively, by 2025. London’s international visitor numbers are expected to rise by 30 per cent to 25.8 million. Its probable competitiors are Singapore, Macau and Dubai – which all overtake London and it will be slightly ahead of Kuala Lumpur.

Over the same time frame, London will widen its lead over other European cities. In second place, Paris is expected to rise from 14.2 million to 17.6 million. Rome will remain in third place, with numbers increasing from 9.6 million to 12 million. But it will be closely challenged by Istanbul and Prague.

Barcelona will see only around 2% gain which is now in the sixth place and has been in news for “overtourism.” London remains way ahead of the rest of the UK in international visitor arrivals. In its second place, Edinburgh will have 1.68 million this year. The Scottish capital will receive only one-12th of its English counterpart’s numbers.

The next most important arrival points are Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow but still London receives as many visitors in the average two months than they do all year.

Euromonitor International points out that the distortion is reflected in airport numbers.